On April 21, Mamluk's envoy requested an audience with Vitus and submitted a letter of challenge to him, agreeing to a decisive battle the next day.
Vitus immediately rejected it. "Tomorrow is not a good day, please wait a few more days."
Not long ago, a new batch of reinforcements arrived at Acre City, including Sakarya Legion, one thousand Dragoons, and two thousand soldiers from the Knights. By the time they arrived at the front line, this decisive battle was almost guaranteed to be won.
The messenger returned to the Mamluk camp and conveyed the news to the commander-in-chief Guwaz.
"Greece people don't want a decisive battle?"
The thing he least wanted to see happened.
Now the main force of Mamluk is trapped in the middle of Levant. The people in the army are panicked, and there are hundreds of deserters every night.
Some tribal leaders clamored for a retreat and suggested that the army should be dispersed into a thousand men and retreat inland along different routes. The smaller the army, the lighter the supply pressure along the way. After passing through the desert area, these armies could regroup.
Guwaz felt that this plan could only be half successful. Assuming that he completely dismantled the army, most of the soldiers would take the opportunity to flee, especially the conscripted desert cavalry.
He has two options left:
1. Take the initiative to go to the south bank of Sea of Galilee and have a decisive battle with Vitus.
2. After waiting a few more days and collecting enough camels, the army was divided into three groups and passed through the southern desert. He personally took charge of the last group, and the remaining two groups were controlled by his cronies.
The more dispersed the army is, the less control the commander has over them. Therefore, Guwaz cannot spread them too far apart. Dividing them into three groups is already the limit. The cost of doing so is the loss of horses, which may be intercepted by the enemy in the future, and the risk is higher.
Obviously, all three options have disadvantages that are difficult to ignore. Amidst Guwaz's hesitation, time passed quietly, and April 25th came unknowingly.
At noon, Guwaz received news that the enemy's main force left the camp, with the target reaching Taysile where our own side was.
"How many are there?"
The cavalry officer replied, "About 30,000 to 40,000."
So many?
There was an uproar in the tent, and the tribal leaders were clamoring to retreat. How could we fight if our own numbers could not suppress the enemy?
"It's too late to retreat now!" Guwaz warned the leaders:
"In this situation, which unit is willing to stay behind and buy time for the friendly forces? At that time, all units will be scrambling to escape, and the enemy cavalry will chase them all the way, and most of them will die. Just give it a try, I don't believe I can't beat the other side!"
Even so, some leaders were still unwilling to join the war, so Guwaz simply detained some of the most cheerful ones and forcibly took over their troops.
The next morning, Vitus led the army to march eastward, and suddenly received a report:
An ambush of Mamluk has been detected in the southern hills, and Second Light Cavalry Brigade is passing for reinforcements.
"Why do enemies always like to set up ambushes? I am not someone like Manuel I."
Vitus rode to the nearby slopes and saw fierce fighting in the southern hills. Thousands of desert cavalry rushed out of the hills to pursue the sparse Eastern Roman Empire reconnaissance cavalry.
On the east side of the battlefield, the enemy army gathered about 20,000 troops. The number of Musketeers was nearly 8,000, and there were also a large number of Field Gun.
"Oh, it's the weapons sold to them by Italy people again."
There were no enemies on the north side of the battlefield for the time being, and the silence was a bit too much. Vitus felt something was wrong and sent two light cavalry battalions over to investigate the situation.
Sure enough, a group of heavy cavalry was ambushed in the forest area towards Northwest, which seemed to be the enemy's real killing move.
After judging that there were no more ambush troops nearby, Vitus quickly dispatched troops.
On the north side of the battlefield, Dragoons and Knights Hospitaller entangle the enemy's heavy cavalry. Even if they cannot win, they can at least delay it for a while.
The formation of the desert cavalry in the southern hills is scattered and their combat effectiveness is limited. Let Mountain Infantry and Second Light Cavalry Brigade disperse them.
Finally, there is the main enemy force on the east side. Vitus hands over the offensive task to two Field Legion.
After receiving the order, Knights Hospitaller responded. The core 450 knights lined up in three wedge formations, and 500 retainers (light cavalry) covered the flanks.
The Grand Commander Rastique was born in 1371. He was old and could not support fighting immediately. He and Cesarini stayed in the infantry array and watched the knights advance slowly.
The sun was dazzling, the hot wind stirred up dry dust, and a large dust mist was raised on the north side of the battlefield. While the knights were still marching, Dragoons took the lead in attacking.
According to Boranov's deployment, eight hundred Dragoons dispersed into multiple groups and quickly moved towards the flank of Mamluk's heavy cavalry.
Initially, there were a thousand light cavalry on the outside of Mamluk's heavy cavalry, but they were taken away from the battlefield by the first two cavalry battalions to scout. Now Mamluk's heavy cavalry lacked cover on its flanks, making it suitable for Dragoons to launch an attack.
"Dismount!"
Boranov reined in his horse and stopped. When the company around him heard the news, more than a hundred people jumped off their horses.
Among them, each class has one person responsible for taking care of the horses, and the remaining members hang the reins of their mounts on the neck of the comrade's horse.
After setting up their horses, the soldiers quickly walked forward and formed two loose horizontal lines. They were eighty steps away from the enemy and could not aim accurately. They aimed their guns in the general direction and pulled the triggers.
Bang!
Boranov vaguely saw scattered fallen figures in the distance. Before he could count them in detail, he led his company to evacuate backwards quickly and found a relatively safe area to dismount and reload.
The equipment of Mamluk is similar to that of the early Cataphracts. The rider is equipped with heavy armor, the horse has a thick anti-arrow robe, and the rider is equipped with spears, riding bows, hammers and other weapons, which have both remote output and melee functions.
The disadvantage of this is that the load-bearing capacity is greatly increased. Their mobility and continuous combat capabilities are very poor, and they are not good at dealing with the harassment of Dragoons. If they rush to catch up, they will only waste the stamina of the war horses.
After a few more minutes, Boranov returned to the battlefield.
This time the situation was slightly different. Through the telescope, he saw a small group of cavalry on the edge of the enemy's formation. These people were taking off their heavy armor, undressing their horses' thick robes, and temporarily transformed from heavy cavalry into light cavalry.
"This is going to be difficult."
Boranov dared not let the soldiers dismount and shoot.
For a cavalryman sprinting at full speed, eighty steps is not a long distance, and he can rush in front of him in just a few seconds.
At this moment, the "light cavalry" on the opposite side did not move, waiting quietly for these Greece men to dismount and shoot, and then defeat them with a decisive charge.
The officer beside him reminded, "Deputy brigade commander, Hospitallers is two hundred steps away from the enemy position and is about to launch a charge."
Boranov turned his head and saw three medium-sized wedge-shaped formations marching slowly. The friendly troops were uniformly wearing red robes with white crosses, their right hands raised their lances upward, and their left hands held shields, exactly as depicted in the murals.
"With over 400 cavalry and 500 light cavalry, the total number is only half of the opponent's. I guess I can't defeat the opponent."
Boranov cursed secretly and led the cavalry company to move forward twenty steps, leaving only sixty steps away from the enemy.
Since dismounting, forming a team, and shooting would take time, he asked the soldiers to shoot directly on horseback. Although the accuracy was a little worse, it was better than doing nothing.
Upon receiving the order from the deputy brigade commander, the Dragoonss stopped their horses and aimed at the general direction of the enemy's formation and opened fire.
Bang!
The violent sound caused the horses to become uneasy. Boranov saw only seven figures falling to the ground. He cursed secretly and then led the cavalry to retreat, leaving the battlefield to Hospitallers who was walking quickly.
"U l vut!"
As the distance got closer and closer, Hospitallers began to charge at full speed, with the lance held levelly in his right hand and the horse bumping up and down. They stared closely at the Mamluk knight directly in front, and pointed the violently shaking spear tip at the enemy's chest.
At the last moment when the two armies collided, the heavy cavalry of Mamluk in the rear threw arrows into the air. The arrows rained down from the sky and fell into Knights Hospitaller's wedge formation. It did not kill the knights wearing plate armor, but only shot a small number of horses, slightly disrupting the charge rhythm of the wedge formation.
Click!
The two armies collided head-on. The wooden spear shafts broke and blood sprayed in the air. The war horses screamed and raised their hooves, throwing the riders on their backs to the ground.
In just a few seconds, the knights at the forefront suffered heavy casualties. The surviving horses neighed and jumped over the pile of corpses, or bypassed the corpses from the left and right sides and continued running forward.
A melee broke out in the center of the battlefield. The fallen knights struggled to get up from the ground, pulled out their swords or warhammers, and rushed towards the nearest enemy with shouts. The diffuse dust obscured the area, making it difficult for the rear to tell which side had the upper hand.
Boranov stayed at the edge of the battlefield, waiting for the soldiers to load their muskets, feeling very anxious inside.
Frankly speaking, he also wanted to lead his troops into the battlefield, but Sabre was not suitable for breaking armor, and it would not cause damage if it was struck on the surface of the armor. The one-handed swords and spears equipped by the enemy could stab Dragoons's leather jacket with full force.
"Friendly troops are killing people in the front, but we are loading this broken gun in the back. We can only kill sporadic enemies every time. This feeling is really unpleasant."
From the rear, the infantry of the Knights gradually approached, and the crossbowmen and Musketeers fired at the Mamluk heavy cavalry. The spearmen maintained their formation to prevent the enemy from attacking the long-range troops.
The grand leader looked solemn. "We have too few knights, and this battle will last for a long time."
He thought of the hundreds of secular knights stranded in Lycia. If the fleet had transported the secular knights over and asked them to cooperate with Knights Hospitaller in fighting, the Mamluk in front of him would have collapsed long ago.
Eleven o'clock at noon, frontal battlefield.
Vitus sent two legions to attack Mamluk New Army. The battle went surprisingly smoothly. Although the Mamluk infantry had better equipment, they did not last as long as White Sheep Army.
Pretending to fail?
Vitus used a telescope to observe the enemy's formation and flags. From time to time, a flag would fall down, and through the long yellow sand, many figures could be seen running backwards.
"The defeat is overwhelming and the chaos is like this. There is no possibility of reversal."
Finally, the enemy's entire front line collapsed. Vitus asked the staff to send out fireworks signals, change flags, and notify the two legions to reorganize on the spot. There were still two thousand cavalry left in the Chinese army, and the pursuit mission was left to them.
Not only that, Vitus sent messenger riders to notify the north and south sides of the battlefield, asking them to abandon the enemy cavalry and focus on chasing down the slower enemy infantry.
"Winning the frontal battlefield so quickly?" The captain couldn't believe it at first, but when he thought about the battle of Kingdom of Jerusalem, he felt that this situation was very reasonable.
At the beginning, Crusaders's core combat power was the brave and fearless knights. Although there were many enemies, it was difficult to stop the knights' charge.
Nowadays, firearms are on the rise, but Hospitallers's bravery has not faded and he is still the absolute master on the battlefield.
"Battle of Arsuf, we (Knights Hospitaller) saved Lionheart's troops. In the current battle of Sea of Galilee, we led the Greece people to turn defeat into victory. Yes, this is the situation."
In the distance, Mamluk's heavy cavalry began to retreat, and Dragoons followed nearby to harass them, like a group of tireless mosquitoes biting these bulky bison.
After receiving the emperor's order, Boranov was relieved.
Rather than this inefficient harassment, he would rather draw his sword to chase down the fleeing infantry.
Boranov called a meeting of officers, "Each company pursues eastward, don't be too scattered, come back before sunset to assemble!"
At the same time, the cavalry did not take the time to eat and replenish their strength, but desperately searched for the belongings of the Mamluk heavy cavalry.
Saddles and armor are bulky and inconvenient to carry. The most popular ones are those Damascus scimitars with gem-inlaid handles. It is said that such things can be sold at high prices in the rear. If you grab a few more knives, you won't have to work for the rest of your life.
Seeing this, Boranov had no choice but to negotiate with the Knights to divide the spoils. Dragoons killed fewer enemies, so it only covered a small area.
"Each company left five people to search for property, and the sergeant major of the first battalion was responsible for supervision. The remaining members pursued the infantry eastward. If they continued to delay, all the good things would be taken away by friendly forces."
In the following hours, Boranov was busy chasing the infantry.
On the way, he clearly felt that the morale of the Mamluk soldiers was not as good as that of White Sheep and Ottoman. Many of them lost their armor and weapons when they fled and surrendered with little resistance.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, he ended the pursuit and returned to the camp with a group of frustrated prisoners of war.
On the way, Boranov met other friendly forces who were escorting prisoners of war back. After inquiring, they found that the process of capturing prisoners of war was equally smooth.
In the evening, each cavalry unit returned to camp one after another and reported casualties and battle results to superiors.
In this battle, Eastern Roman Empire's army suffered one thousand casualties. Knights Hospitaller and Mamluk's heavy cavalry were entangled, and the casualty ratio was relatively high, more than 600 people.
Mamluk suffered about 3,000 casualties during the battle phase. Most of the losses occurred after the defeat. A total of 12,000 people were captured, including army commander Guwaz.
According to the prisoners' confessions, there were no more than four thousand Firearms Corps left in Egypt, but the enemy had the ability to mobilize 30,000 to 40,000 levies.
Are there so many troops?
Vitus wanted to cease the war as soon as possible, so he ordered to summon Guwaz and informed him:
"I am willing to fulfill my promise last year and let the local lords govern their respective territories without interfering with your customs and beliefs."
For the defeated, this is almost the best condition they can obtain.
However, Guwaz could not shake off the impact of the defeat, and his whole heart was filled with despair. He lowered his head and neither responded to the emperor's persuasion to surrender nor argued with the other party. He only replied with one sentence:
"Whatever you do, it's none of my business."